To celebrate Valentine's Day, the Young at Heart team is thrilled to invite you to a very special FREE screening of LATE BLOOMERS (PG). It'll be an opportunity for us to thank you for your ongoing support of Sydney's Seniors Film Festival, and to give you an early bird preview of the 2012 program.

In writer/director Julie Gavras' delightfully warm and wise romantic comedy, the inestimable Isabella Rossellini and Academy Award-winner William Hurt play a couple whose 30-year marriage is starting to run into trouble. 

Hurt is Adam, a London-based architect horrified to find himself the recipient of awards that suggest he's reached the end of his career, while wife Mary (Rossellini), taken aback by an unexpected health scare, sets a course of radical action in league with her vivacious best friend (Joanna Lumley). As Adam & Mary respond to these challenges in completely opposite and unpredictable ways (successfully infuriating each other in the process), their 3 adult children plot to find ways to keep them together... 

With luminous supporting performances from a mix of established and upcoming British acting talent, Late Bloomers is an elegant and engaging portrait of marriage, and the joys & realities of getting on.

WHEN: 10am, Tuesday 14th February 2012
WHERE: Dendy Opera Quays, 9/2 East Circular Quay, Sydney (on the promenade between Circular Quay & the Sydney Opera House

To reserve your DOUBLE PASS, simply email Tim with your full name & postal address (subject: LATE BLOOMERS).

The first 125 to respond will receive a confirmation email and win 2 tickets to the screening. Only winners will be notified.

Come see the amazing films, guests and special events on offer during NSW Seniors Week. The Festival runs March 22 to 25 and if you email Karina or call her on 02 9281 5608, she will send you a free program guide in the post.

In the meantime, we reveal a sneak peak at some of the highlights on our program page. Have a look!

Thank you all for making this event so woderful and SEE YOU NEXT YEAR!

Producer Donna Lyon, actor Chris Haywood, director Oliver Waghorn

March 24th we celebrated the 5th annual Young At Heart Short Film Awards with Sydney’s filmmaking community heading out in force to the event at Dendy Opera Quays.

Taking place as part of the Young At Heart Film Festival, The Young At Heart Short Film Awards showcase the best new Australian short films starring seniors, selected from a national call for submissions.

Finalists competed for two $1,000 cash awards.

The NSW Seniors Week Talent Award for exceptional acting from a person over the age of 60, as judged by the esteemed panel of jurors: actress Robina Beard, Bondi Short Film Festival director Francis Coady, and actress & filmmaker Tara Morice. The Audience Award for Best Film, meanwhile, was voted for by the audience.

Jury members Robina Beard & Tara Morice

Selected from a pool of six finalists, the winners are as follows:

NSW Seniors Week Talent Award for exceptional acting from a person over the age of 60
Colette Mann, JUST DESSERTS
(A film by Nigel Karikari/ 2009) 
Starring: Wendy Hughes, Colette Mann, Stephen Leeder

Special mention: Jack Thompson, THE TELEGRAM MAN
(A film by James Khetie)

Viron Papadopoulos introduces "Bad Language"

The Audience Award for Best Film 
BAD LANGUAGE
(A film by Viron Papadopoulos/ 2010)
Starring: Chris Asimos

Guests that day included Bruce Beresford and actors Barry Otto, Miranda Otto, Chris Haywood.

Barry Otto & Susan Hills at the Young at Heart Short Film Awards

Australian filmmaker Belinda Chayko will fly to Sydney this Friday to present her coming-of-age drama LOU at the Festival!

Set on the North Coast, LOU stars the great BAFTA-winning actor John Hurt (also in Brighton Rock this week), alongside Emily Barclay as well as the young and talented Lily Bell-Tindley.

LOU is the second feature film directed by Belinda Chayko. Her earlier feature, City Loop, premiered in the Discovery Section of the Toronto International Film Festival and screened at a number of festivals worldwide. She’s also made a number of award-winning short films and written the AWGIE award-winning telemovie Saved. Belinda was thrilled that the filming location for LOU was just down the road from her house in Murwillumbah, NSW. We're thrilled to welcome her to Sydney for this very special screening!

Watch the trailer:

LOU screens at Dendy Opera Quays Friday March 25th at 12:30pm.

Meet Koko, the star of new Australian drama RED DOG, premiering Friday 25th March at Young at Heart!

Director Kriv Stenders recruited trainer Luke Hura and set about casting for Red Dog ahead of pre-production and casting. Stenders said, “Usually you wait until the money is in or the film is financed before you do anything but the producer was very aware that the trainer and that dog were critical to the success of the film so we got Luke on and started a fairly exhaustive search for Red Dog.”

The search took the filmmakers to Geelong in Victoria, where they found Koko, a two-year-old red cloud kelpie.  Koko’s personality was perfect to play Red Dog, and a touch of colour treatment would give him the rusty red tones the filmmakers were looking for.

This is Koko's screen test:

And here's the trailer for this heart-warming Aussie film we know you'll love.

Get Low is inspired by the true story of an eccentric Tennessee recluse – Felix “Bush” Breazeale - who attracted national attention, and the largest crowd to assemble up to that date, when he threw himself a living funeral party in 1938. This witty drama benefits from a playful script and gorgeous photography, but it’s Robery Duvall who steals the show with a masterful performance which leaves no viewer uncharmed. Bill Murray and Sissy Spacek, meanwhile, have rarely been more endearing.

Get Low screens on Sudnay 27 March at 12:30pm as part of Young At Heart at Dendy Opera Quays.

Eddie Cockrell is an American film critic and festival programmer. Since 1998 he has reviewed international films, notable DVD releases and the occasional Hollywood movie for industry bible Variety and a host of international publications. He has worked for years as a programmer for Washington's FilmFest D.C., ran the non-profit Americas Film Festival Foundation in the mid-1990s, and before that programmed the American Film Institute Theater at Washington's Kennedy Center.

We are thrilled to announce that Eddie Cockrell will be a special guest of Young at Heart 2011. He will be at the Festival on Saturday March 26th to introduce the screenings of THE MALTESE FALCON and THE AFRICAN QUEEN. Mr Cockrell is an expert in the cinema of American master John Huston, and recently curated a retrospective of Huston's work for the Sydney Film Festival. 

Here are the trailers for the John Huston collaborations with Humphrey Bogart, which will be screening at Young at Heart.

Graham Greene’s classic 1938 novel is updated to 1964 in this brand new British noir, premiering at Young at Heart on Saturday 26th March at 3pm (buy tickets). Here's the brand new trailer: